Philippine Olympic Committee secretary general Pato Gregorio has said the POC is hoping that Monday night’s melee in the FIBA World Cup Qualifiers will not affect Gilas Pilipinas’ upcoming stint in the 2018 Asian Games in Indonesia.
It is expected that sanctions will be handed out to Gilas and the Australia Boomers following their brawl last Monday at the Philippine Arena, a free-for-all that led to the ejection of 13 players, with nine coming from the Philippine team.
“We hope that FIBA will consider our participation there,” said Gregorio, after PBA commissioner Willie Marcial and the relevant Gilas players convened at the league’s office, Thursday evening at Libis, Quezon City.
“Indonesia is our partner in 2023 [FIBA World Cup], we want to be there, we want to play there and it’s for our country,” he added. “In behalf of the president of the POC and the organization, we hope it will not affect our participation.
“We want to be part of it.”
Gregorio shared that the Indonesia Asian Games Organizing Committee has already reached out to the POC and expressed concern regarding Gilas’ status for the quadriennial meet set this August, which has turned shaky.
“We already received inquiry from INASGOC, the Indonesian organizing committee, that they are also worried,” Gregorio said. “They are our Southeast Asian partners. I’m sure they don’t want us to be left out.”
But aside from the participation itself, Gilas is also facing problems regarding player availability.
Of the nine players who got kicked out from that game, four of them are part of the TNT Katropa core that will be sent in the Asiad: forward Troy Rosario, scorer Terrence Romeo, two-way player Roger Pogoy, and top guard Jayson Castro.
The four Texters, given their participation in the melee, are all expected to receive sanctions from FIBA, with the worst being suspension. Thus, Gregorio and the POC will convene again with PBA and SBP for the matter.
“We just have to sit down with the PBA and SBP to address this issue.”
